Why do idealists argue that matter can be explained by mind?

Idealists argue that matter can be explained by mind because they maintain that the "lower" level of reality—the material world—is fundamentally dependent on the "higher" level of reality, which is consciousness or spirit. Unlike materialist philosophies that attempt to reduce mental processes to physical components like protons and electrons, idealism asserts that mind cannot be explained by matter.1

This perspective is rooted in several key arguments:

• Centrality of Mind: Idealism posits that reality exists essentially as consciousness or spirit. Because all knowledge is processed through the mind, idealists argue that objects are known only as ideas or are conditioned by their perceptibility.2
• The Doctrine of Esse est percipi: Philosophers like George Berkeley argued that for sensible objects, "to be is to be perceived". In this view, material things are not independent substances but are instead "sensible ideas" or sense-data directly experienced by a percipient mind.345
• Ontological Priority: Idealists often view reality as a unity of conceptual essences. By defining reality through its highest qualities—mental rather than material—they conclude that the material world is an expression of an underlying immaterial ideality.62